Historical Precedent for Agreeing to Disagree

TitusOneNine commenter Dale Rye makes an interesting point about the Current Troubles in the Episcopal Church.  He notes that in the 1870s, the church was almost torn apart by disagreement about various theological points, such as Grace Alone and Real Presence.  He says:

… It is impossible to reconcile the theologies of all these men, yet all are regarded by Anglicans with much the same veneration as saints. If Episcopalians and Anglicans had insisted on uniformity of belief, at least four of them would have been excommunicated. De Koven was denied confirmation as a bishop twice and Brooks nearly suffered the same fate. The mere possibility that the Episcopal Church might countenance the likes of De Koven led Bp. Cummins and the Reformed Episcopalians to walk apart.

The struggle between these three strands of Anglicanism nearly tore ECUSA and the Communion apart in the 1870s, yet before the end of the 80s the efforts of William Reed Huntington to promote “the church-idea” against sectarianism had led to a new vision of the Anglican Communion reflected in the Call to Home Reunion and the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral.

The key to avoiding a breakup was for all three parties to agree to disagree on certain key doctrines (things like Grace Alone and the Real Presence, which nobody thinks of as mere adiaphora) while agreeing to restrain their actions for the sake of preserving communion. They did not seek to get even for outrages as profound as those in Connecticut, but moved on.

If Anglicanism is to survive the current decade in any recognizable form, similar compromises are going to be necessary. If we are unwilling to make them, preferring to stand with Newman against Keble or Cummins against Simeon, then the Communion is doomed. That is not to say that God cannot raise up something great on the ashes, only to say that it will be something entirely different from Anglicanism as it has been understood for at least 120 years. Those of us who have loved the unique contribution of Anglicanism to Christianity will find ourselves homeless.

(Emphasis added.)  Read it all.